Cafés, restaurants, shops, and a hotel are among the businesses to embrace the eBay-owned company's mobile technology and offer customers more personal transactions.

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Consumers can now 'check in' to pay for goods and services at participating outlets using the PayPal app for iOS, Android and Windows Phone devices.

Logging into the app lets users check into nearby shops and restaurants. Their name and photo will then appear on the outlet's payment system, and transactions can be carried out.

The service means that consumers can leave their wallet or purse at home when they venture out, and restaurants and stores do not have to turn people away if they are not carrying cash or bank cards.

"This is another step on the journey towards a wallet-less high street, where customers will be able to leave their wallet or purse at home and pay using their phone or tablet," said PayPal's head of retail services Rob Harper.

"At the moment, the same technology is used in Starbucks across the US, in the UK however, it is much more in a trial period, running in only 12 stores in Richmond. PayPal plans on rapidly expanding beyond this however.

"We predict that by 2016 this will become a reality. Our Richmond initiative shows that innovation is alive and well on the British high street."